The Fortress of Charlemont (Fort de Charlemont) is a French stronghold located near the Belgian border on the Meuse. It is a citadel, surrounded by a network of outworks, including the connecting forts (Givet and the Mont d'Hours). It dominates the town of Givet and when in use as a working fortress controlled the valley of the Meuse.
In 1554, Henrik II of France sent in his troops against the Spanish Netherlands. Agimont castle was captured, and Givet and its region were devastated. As these conquests compromised the security of the Ardenne borders, Holy Roman Empire Charles V resolved to protect them by building new strongholds, that of Charlemont at Givet and that of Philippeville at Echerennes. From 1555, building of the fort began. 20000 infantrymen, 3000 cavaliers and numerous labourers were put to work. The fortress was established around an old, unfinished 15th-century castle, located on the heights of the Eastern point.
Later stronghold was then coveted and besieged by all the reigns of Europe until 1914. It never surrendered. Today, it is the tourist who climbs to attack the citadel, who is an essential witness to history.
The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.